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Question for activists on international harassement

category international | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis author Monday August 05, 2013 20:54author by MJ2013 - NA Report this post to the editors

Question for activists on international harassement

Revelations from Snowden and Manning have shown the close nature and spying operations at an unseen level.

Revelations from Snowden and Manning have shown the close nature and spying operations at an unseen level.

In light of Snowden and Manning I have the following questions for readers

- Are activists being targeted and followed when they leave Ireland?
- Are activists being targeted in Ireland for unpopular views
- Do activists believe that there is a secret watch list being used to follow activists as they move around the world?
- Can you guys please provide links to established newssites and or personal stories which can support the existence of a widespread activist watch list?

Thanks.

author by fionnpublication date Tue Aug 06, 2013 18:53author address author phone Report this post to the editors

As far as im aware gardai and other un-uniformed gardai personell take pictures of those protesting at shannon airport for future reference,ie if they see them around again,it is because they can keep an eye on them and identify them if they damage an aircraft.

Of course you can argue there are more sinister motivations behind this,and im sure there are groups out there that infiltrate the socialist activists groupings that there are in ireland.

They have had undercover cops working in these areas for years pretending to be part of the socialist and activist movements etc..

They have been at it in the uk for years and years whos to say they are not doing it in ireland.If its not already happening it will happen,as ever ireland follows the uk model for just about everything.

You should look it up and see for yourself,they have had specialised units tackling the 'socialist activist problem' for decades now.

Anyway,Ive had a quick search on google and see that there is a wikipedia list of activists such as alexander cockburn and ciaron o reilly etc.

So the lists are there if you look for them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Irish_activists

author by activistapublication date Tue Aug 06, 2013 20:25author address author phone Report this post to the editors

This article on the kennedy stone affair may be of interest. Plenty of interesting comments. It all came up in the house of commons too. Might be worth researching further.

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/97967

I'm pretty sure most of the well known Irish shell protesters are on a big shit list somewhere.

Activists are not liked in Ireland and are treated like shit by the state if you engage in such democratically crucial activities. In my experience, they often use the law in ways it was never intended to harass activists. You are more likely to end up doing hard time protesting than robbing people in Ireland.

The gardai are always filming people on protests and they expend plenty of resources keeping tabs on them. Of that I have no doubt. Criminals are not a threat to the kleptocratic status quo, In fact a certain level of crime is a necessity to scare the population into accepting increased police powers etc. . However activists are a threat to the status quo.